first week in our house

it has been a very tiring week in the new house. besides just the normal unpacking and purchasing of new goods and furniture for our home, thursday night we got hit really hard by about 10 thunderstorms in a row. needless to say our power was out for about 16 hours. our sump pump did its best but one of the local water levels rose too high and our whole street flooded. we tried our best to save the basement carpet, but after a noble effort by our friend chad and jon, we spent 3 hours yesterday pulling up our stanky, wet, remains of carpet. it was gross and not the way we wanted our first house-owning experience to go.

God has been so good though and reminded me of how blessed i am to even have this place.

i'm learning a lot. and i'm also very sore and caloused, but it is ok, i am ok, i am loved.

August 16th

This is the day that Jon and I became home owners. It's been exciting and tiring...

So far we have painted the master bedroom and gotten all the wallpaper off of the upstairs bathroom. I'll paint that tomorrow.

It's been really exciting and I will hopefully get pictures up soon.

Hooray!

Facebook

Jon and I have joined the facebook world and it is crazy fun. Other than that, we've been packing here and there and overall, just getting really excited for our move.

Much love to you.

Home owners

That's what we are!

already...

We only officially looked for 2 days, but this has been such a long-time coming we knew it was right what we were looking for when we saw it. We made an offer with the time line that we wanted in order to give us some good moving time and let us finish out our apartment lease and the offer was accepted.

We close on or around August 13th and get possession upon closing. It's a 3 bedroom townhouse with a full finished basement and 2 full bathrooms. It's been very well taken care of and the woman that is selling the home is leaving quite a bit of furniture for us as well as she is moving into a smaller space. And we do not have enough furniture to fill it on our own, so it's a great deal for us.

We are super excited and will send pictures once we get into the space and start making it our own.

Thanks for you prayers and good wishes.

love,

kim

June

June has been a good month. It started off with my birthday and a visit from Kati and Jesse (pictured below). It was a nice visit with them filled with lots of Nerts, walking and talking. I think they are good for one another and I pray that their trip around the states is beneficial in the way they need it to be right now. It was a good visit and their email updates have been great to find out where they are headed to next and what they have seen so far.

After Kati and Jesse left, Jon and I had a few days to ourselves to celebrate our 3 year anniversary. These days were good and they reminded us that we need to be taking more time for the two of us. We shouldn't have to take a vacation just to see one another. This is a hard realization since we enjoy all of the activities we are in, but it's an important realization as well.

Anthea came to visit us last weekend which was great. She is headed off to grad school in August which is sad for us, but it will be a great experience for her. I'm so excited to hear about her life down there. I think it will be a joyous and busy time for her. But she deserves all the joy she wants.

We are getting pre-approved this week for a house and we start looking on Friday. This is both one of the most exciting things ever and the most terrifying. But the excitement is weighing out the terror--so far.

If you pray-please continue to pray for God's direction in my life. It's not clear at all right now, so I am interpreting that as me needing to just stay where I am. I just worry that I will miss out on those opportunities to grow...or that I would get stuck in a rut.

Alright, thanks,

me

May time

Greetings all,
I'm getting more and more infrequent with my posting, but it's still better than I thought I would keep up, so there's that...Today's weather is gorgeous. I went into work early and came home and took a nap by the open window. It was really nice.
Debbie and Roderick were here for a visit last week which was great and Kati and Jesse are coming to visit on June 1st-ish. It's a busy couple of months. Then hopefully in July/August, we are going to be moving into a house/townhouse of our very own. We are excited about the opportunities and challenges of actually owning our own space. We have moved so much since we've been married that we've never really even thought about owning our own place. We have been really happy in our area with our jobs (relatively) and especially our church that we would like to stay here for at least a few more years.
I'm watching the Cubs/Sox game on our new HDTV. It's crazy how much of a difference it makes.
Alright, I love you all.

Go Sox.

Kim

Debbie and Roderick's visit

Debbie and Roderick came to visit last week. It was a really nice time. Hannah is getting so big and she is really fun. We played quite a bit of cards, some mini golf, and just enjoyed one another's company. It was a great trip.

end of April

it's been a while since a post. everything is going alright. 5 out of the last 6 days i have woken up (willingly) at an hour that begins with a 5. i've been trying to regularly work out a couple of days a week and overtime started with work pretty hard core this week as well. for those of you that regularly wake up at 5:20-props to you. it is difficult. i am sleepy.

we got a new tv this week and we're pretty actively house hunting (well, at least i am). so that's fun. debbie, roderick, and hannah are coming to visit in the middle of may and kati and jesse are coming at the beginning of june. i drove down to washington today after going in to work from 6-9 this morning. it was a brief but good visit. mom and dad are redoing their living room area. they knocked down a whole wall. it's pretty crazy but it's going to look really good.

i'm looking for a little direction in my life coming up after the summer. if anyone has any ideas...

everything is going really well i'm just always trying to keep my options open.

i'm really tired and i feel like that's really obvious.

84 degrees

This was the temperature listed on the thermometer next to my cubicle at work today.

It was very hot and I did not like it...at all.

All in all the month has been good. We've now had 4 weeks of Missio Dei which has gone really well. Already we feel like there are some people that are returning back on a regular basis that are searching, so that is exciting and I think gives us all a lot of instant gratification with the church so far.

Anthea came to visit this weekend and we had a grand ol' time. We ate tacos with beer and had Ben and Jerrys. Mmm. Then we watched "Stranger than Fiction" which is a super movie. Then Anthea came to church with us and we all hung out until she went away. Then we were sad.

The weather has helped my mood. It's been great to take walks and breathe air.

I think each week as more and more of my time is taken by any given event that comes up how the Lord is sustaining me through each minute. When I am not this busy, I don't need that constant reminder every day of how much I can't handle everything on my plate. I think it's true that many times we all need to step back and relax in order to see and feel God's presence in our lives, but it is always refreshing to notice how steadfast He is when there is no time to step back at all.

Love and sunshine...

First two weeks

As most of my recent posts have involved Missio Dei, it will not be a surprise that this one is about it as well. Today we did our second official dress rehearsal with next Sunday being our "Grand Opening." Our first week was full of people. We were amazed at the numbers we saw with over 100 people in attendance. This week we didn't have as many people, but set up and take down (especially for children's ministry) was much better. My preschoolers had a great time and that was really important to me as last week's lesson was all kinds of chaos.

I worked the business expo in a nearby town for our church as well yesterday. It's so sad how most people are so skiddish when they see that our activity is from a church. Many people would not even say hello and just state "I'm not a religious person. " I caught a bit of Paul's sermon this morning and it was about the name of our church, "Missio Dei." It's Latin for mission of God. I think especially after yesterday I feel more and more like it is our church's responsibility to be like Christ in loving people no matter how strangely they look at what we are doing (or trying to do).

Missio Dei

Greetings,

This is the final week before the start of Missio Dei, the church plant that Jon and I have been involved with. I have not believed in any ministry with the possible exception of Camp Hope more than I believe in the work that God is doing in this church. Our church planting family has already become so important to Jon and I. It's so amazing to work with people who truly feel called to help the community and show them who God really is. I can not praise the Lord enough for giving us this community and our first "home" since we've been married. My prayer in this final week of preparation is just that Missio Dei can be even more beneficial to others in our community and that people would come to a true saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

My love to all,

kim

MD pics

a few pictures

I've been having a hard time getting these to transfer from Picassa, but hopefully this one will go and I can get some more up.

We've got a lot of snow here. Our trips the past few weeks to see our families have been very enjoyable. This is Hannah-she's already one year old. We had a lot of fun visiting her, her mom and dad, and her grandma and grandad.

This weekend

This weekend was really nice. Jon and I are tired! but it was worth it. The only thing that could have helped this weekend go better would have been if the Bears actually won the superbowl, but all in all, it was a wonderful time with the Kim family.

However, I did forget to bring my camera which is regret-able. This week is short and then Thursday we are off to Maryland for more family fun. This time it's on Jon's side. I took a CPR class tonight which was pretty standard as far as CPR classes go, but my instructor was British so you got the added bonus of phrases like "carry on then" and "you wouldn't want to tread on them" and my personal British favorite "thank you very much" in the context of a story. It goes something like "it would be ridiculous to eat peas-thank you very much."

Jon is still at praise band practice which I was unable to go to with the CPR class, but I'm going to grab a bit of food and relax the rest of my evening.

There are lots of changes for Jon right now with his job. As any of us would be uncertain, please pray for Jon as he has to make some decisions in the next few weeks and is anxious about that.

Love and warmth,
kim

superbowl

So, the reason I'm most excited about the Superbowl is because all of my immediate family is driving to Cincinnati to watch it together. My brother in North Carolina and his family and my parents and us from Illinois are all driving to Ohio to just view it together. I think it's mostly because we all want to see it with my dad. He is a huge Bears fan and we all got to experience the last time they went to the Superbowl together, so we want to do it again. A whole lot has changed in 21 years, but it's still really cool that we're all able to do it.

The weekend after that Jon and I are flying out to DC to see his family. We have not seen his parents since last March so we're well overdue. It'll be really nice to see all of them.

So be prepared for the family pictures that are soon to follow this week.

Hope all are well.

Peace and love.

da bears!

woooo!!!

yay bears!!!

superbowl time.

recently

Good morning,

There hasn't been a whole lot going on with Jon and I as of late. Our church plant stuff is about to ramp up even more as we look at a start date the first weekend in March. We are going out to see Jon's family in early February, weather providing, and we have been busy with work.

I gave a talk to my staff on Thursday all about just being mature people, being people who don't gossip as I have yet to see it as a productive form of communication. Then the very next day this woman that I did not care for (not anyone in my team) got fired and I could not stop myself from gossiping about it all day long. I was doing a quiet time this morning and through the morning I have just been asking the Lord to help me not be such a hypocrite. I do honestly believe that my worst enemy is myself.

In other news, our youngest niece Hannah is taking a few steps. She is just 11 months. She's a very talented little dear. We are excited to see their family in a month. We're supposed to get some actual snow this weekend instead of the heat wave we have been having.

Ok, well the dishes and laundry are not going to do themselves. Write more soon,

Kim

favorites in '06

Movies--Little Miss Sunshine, For Your Consideration, Stranger Than Fiction, The Prestige, The Departed, The Last Kiss

Music--Dylan's "Modern Times", the Weepies, Ray LaMontagne, Mates of State "Bring it Back"

TV--Lost and Veronica Mars along with watching all three seasons of "the Wire " that are on DVD, this is a good show

Books--I've only read a few things that I'm sure have come out this year so I won't try to list in case I'm wrong about those--currently reading "I Like You" by Amy Sedaris (hilarious) and "Take the Cannolli" by Sarah Vowell (did not come out this year)

Favorite moments of--time spent with our family, Hannah was born and their visit in August, my trip out to Cincinatti, Matt and Suzy's kids coming up to visit in July, our move up to Mokena

Notables--we got kicked out of our apartment complex via tornadoes in March, spent some time in St. Louis, my parents house, and eventually Maryland to get away, our church in Springfield packed up our whole lives in a moving truck within 2 and 1/2 hours for our move up here, we hooked up with our church plant and the wild and crazy believers at Missio Dei, we gave out Christmas cookies to our whole apartment complex and received back 3 thank you notes and 3 thank yous in person